Urban and rural development minister Erastus Uutoni has called on Grootfontein councillors to stop fighting among themselves, saying they should wait for God to give them the positions they crave.
“You made positions your number one priority. Positions should come on their own. Don’t fight over it. If you are going to be mayor, God has already given it to you. It will come; don’t force it,” he advised.
The infighting is largely attributed to factions within Swapo.
“Infighting is not a good thing at all. When the elephants fight, the grass suffers the most. Personal interest is a challenge. When you develop too many ambitions, then service delivery is affected. If you are taking positions ahead of service delivery, then you forget why the community elected you into power,” Uutoni in an interview with New Era this week.
The unresolved internal squabbles in Grootfontein saw the suspensions of its newly sworn-in mayor and other district executive members over allegations of voting for the opposition to ascend to the chairpersonship of the town’s management committee.
The latest development is that of Grootfontein municipality chairperson of the management committee Elizabeth Kastoor, who moved a motion this week to get the town’s CEO Kisco Sinvula suspended over allegations of serious misconduct.
These allegations range from insubordination, abuse of power, violations of the Local Authorities Act of 1992, violations of the Procurement Act, corruption, forgery, misleading and misrepresentation of facts, negligent trading, utterances, violations of labour law, racketeering and the misuse of public funds.
Contacted for comment, Kastoor said she can only comment on the motion after the council meeting next week.
“I can’t comment until full council sits next week. I don’t know the date, but it is next week. After that meeting, then I can comment,” she added.
On his part, Sinvula responded “that’s PDM and IPC politics. I have no comments further, and motions are classified as confidential.”
When asked if the council is fully functional, Kastoor responded, “Yes, the council is fully functional since we were sworn in on 17 February this year.”
The power to discharge the CEO or other staff members of a local authority council shall vest - (a) in the local authority council in the case of - (i) the chief executive officer, with the prior written approval of the minister; or (ii) head of a department referred to in section 28.
With so many suspensions flying around the region, Uutoni advised councillors to follow the correct procedures before they can suspend officials, especially the CEO, as stipulated in section 29 (6) (b) of the Local Authorities Act.
An example is Talitha Garises (66), who only served as mayor for less than a week before she was subsequently suspended and recalled by the Swapo district executive committee.
Garises, who was sworn in as Grootfontein mayor on 17 February, faces suspension along with other party cadres for allegedly supporting members of the opposition to take over the management committee.
On 2 December 2021, Grootfontein district coordinator John Haimbondi wrote a letter addressed to Swapo President Hage Geingob, detailing reasons for the recalling and suspension of Garises.
Uutoni said the ministry trains functionaries on how elected councillors should conduct themselves within local authorities, and how to deal with issues within these councils.
“We tell them that service delivery will be achieved if councillors, irrespective of their political affiliation, are united. They should go and review what they were given during the training. They can also request our officials to go and help them understand the Act,” the minister suggested.